Sonic: Quest for the Platinum Emerald
by NoSuchThingAsNormal
Summary: Sonic and Tails infiltrate the Egg Carrier once more, only to find that the evil doctor is plotting to inflict elemental destruction on the world with a new series of robots and a previously-unheard-of artifact... With the help of new allies, can they save the world before it's too late? Contains OC's. Rated T for action sequences, language, and some suggestive stuff. My FF debut!
1. New Enemies?

Sonic: Quest for the Platinum Emerald

**Chapter 1: New Enemies?**

Aboard the Egg Carrier, a blue hedgehog was sprinting at supersonic speeds across a gauntlet of lasers. Once again, a battle was ensuing between him and the notorious Dr. Eggman. Once again, Eggman wanted to use something for the purpose of evil and world domination. And that meant once again, he had to be stopped.

Who else to stop him but Sonic the Hedgehog, who had emerged from the tunnel where he passed by at least twenty precision-firing laser turrets. Now he had to go through a crowd of Egg Pawns, who were positioned to stop Sonic from reaching Eggman and thwart his evil doings. Sonic Homing-Attacked them all to pieces. But then he realized that it took almost zero effort to do so. Of course, it took little effort in the first place, but this time around, the Egg Pawns were doing practically nothing to defend themselves. He wondered why that was so, and then he continued onward.

Something up in the air caught Sonic's attention. He looked up and saw Eggman... turned the other way. _First the Egg Pawns, now Eggman himself is turning away? Something's not right here_, Sonic thought to himself. He waited a little bit longer, still trying to grasp on what was happening, when suddenly, a fleet of huge, deformed and simply put terrifying robots spewed out from where Eggman was facing. Sonic couln't believe these were actually the doctor's creations, they were like nothing he ever faced.

As he looked closer, the robots were attacking at something... or someone... He couldn't get that clear of a view from so far away. Sonic strained his ears, wondering if he could add an extra sense to find out what was going on, and started to hear Eggman...talking? "Ther...no...es...pe...my...ove...", followed by a loud and feminine scream of pain.

_Blaze? _No, it couldn't be, Blaze never screamed like that. _Amy?_ Too high-pitched. The blue hedgehog cotinued to strain his ears and eyes, still confused as to what was happening and why, for whatever reason. His ears did catch something clear enough to understand: "Get your hands OFF of her, you BASTARD!"

_OK. Seriously. What's going on? _Sonic was still getting nowhere with all of what he was taking in, but as stubborn as he was, he remained to find at least an idea of the situation. He got slightly closer in order to see what it was. But that was to no avail, as he got hit with a massive tidal wave. As Sonic was washed away, he saw that the tidal wave wasn't solely directed towards him; it was launched all around the Egg Carrier, like it spanned from all directions from whoever launched it. So he wasn't being targeted, but somebody else, likely Eggman, was.

Knowing that someone was taking care of Eggman for him, Sonic decided that he could take a little break. No matter how big a thrill he got from taking down the Doctor, it was physically demanding, so he needed a break. But while he was walking away, a laser nicked his shoe, which made him jump out of the way. _So Eggman was trying to distract me,_ Sonic thought. _Well, I'm not going to turn away now!_ And so he sped back to where the skirmish was taking place.

"Distractions, Distractions... How they leave their marks on all of us." Said the doctor, but not before uttering out his trademark evil laugh. "Seems that we both got sidetracked."

"Enough with the talking and let's get on with it, Egg-brains!" It now came clear to Sonic- Eggman was using... whoever- as a ploy to get Sonic off his guard. Sonic knew that once he was finished with eggman, he would have to give whoever distracted him a serious talking-to, and if that someone did happen to be on Eggman's side, they would have to duke it out.

But that didn't matter, not right now at least. Sonic gathered up all his strength to fend off all the robots Dr. Eggman sent out, not stopping until every single one of them were destroyed. Said Doctor still continued to send out fleet after fleet of robots, determined to fend off, if not destroy Sonic outright.

After almost 3 dozen fleets, Eggman thought of something... he never did before. It just occured to him... _My E-XT series... Why didn't I think of it before? _In a matter of seconds, the same horribly deformed and extremely powerful mechs were shot out at Sonic, an aim to anihlate everything in their way.

The shock Sonic had from the sight of these new E-XT series quickly turned into rage, and soon after motivation to destroy them like he did with countless of Eggman's past creations. Sonic rushed at them with full speed, hoping to speed throught them and break them one by one...

But suddenly, a searring pain shot through his ankles, holding him back from running, from walking... The hedgehog looked behind him to see one of these new robots from a distance, arms extended into chains, whic extended to long, narrow spikes inserted through the skin over his ankles. Sonic tried to run again, hoping to take the spikes out and finish with the mechs, but to no avail, as the spikes themselves kept him fron doing so. The pain in Sonic's ankles increased as he was being pulled from said joints closer to his metal-made captor.

"I do apologize", said Eggman, "but I think it would be best for you not to find out anything more about this past...situation, don't you agree? You sure were confused at the start." Cue another evil laugh from the obese scientist. "Prepare to say goodbye, Sonic."

_He's right, _Sonic thought._ There's no way I can possibly-_

Before he could finish his thought, the sound of a dangerously close explosion echoed in his ears, even long after it was done. He got up to his feet, turning around to see what caused the robots to disintegrate into tiny shards of blackened steel on the ground. The pain from his ankles had faded, as he finally noticed nothing was holding him back anymore.

After a long silence, the sounds of a motorized propellor became audible. Sonic looked up to see-

"The Tornado? Tails! Am I ever glad to see you!" Said kitsune landed the Tornado on the now-destroyed Egg Carrier.

"I saw you were in a bit of a fix! Are you-"

"Pffft! A bit of a fix!? Try multiplying that by, what, a thousand times?" Sonic snarked.

"Well, I'm just glad you're alright!" Tails looked around and observed the area a little. "Seems Eggman escaped. Whaddya say we leave this dump?"

"I say yes! I've got something to tell you too, If you don't know about what's going on."

"So... If I heard you right, you think there might be others working for Eggman? And that he has this new robot collection called the E-XT series that are like nothing he's ever created and are much more powerful?" This was indeed a lot for Tails to take in, especially all at once, but how could he deny it? Sonic was indeed his best friend, and he was there, after all.

"I know what I saw," Sonic insisted. "There was somebody screaming, and then there was this huge wave of water that washed me away. After that, I heard the sounds of battle. I thought someone else was coming in to take care of Eggman and give me a bit of a break. But then, this happened." He pointed to the nick-mark on his shoe that was created by the laser. "Then I knew that I was being distracted by these new minions of Eggman."

"What about the E-XT robots?" Tails added.

"They were... I don't know the right words to describe them. They have to be seen to be believed." Sonic shivered at the very thought of them. "But the chains they use... Makes them nearly invincible. All I'm saying is... beware of the chains."

"You sound stressed. I think you need some rest," suggested Tails, gesturing to a small cot in the corner.

"Rest. Good idea, if I can get any," Sonic agreed, shuddering at the thought of the E-XT robots.


	2. Capture!

Chapter 2: Capture!

While Sonic slept, images were circulating through his head. A whole swarm of E-XT robots was chasing him. Sonic was running at top speed, but the robots were faster than him. They extended their spiked chains and trapped Sonic in them. The spikes sunk deeper into Sonic's body. It was a very torturous experience. Sonic screamed in agony...

"Sonic! Sonic! SONIC!" Tails shouted, attempting to wake Sonic up from his nightmare. He succeeded. "We've landed," he told his friend.

"Good," sighed Sonic. "You wouldn't believe the nightmare I just had. Those E-XT robots were after me. I was freaking out!"

"They're that terrifying, aren't they?"

"Like I said, they have to be seen to be believed."

"Mmm-hmm... Well, what I was meaning to tell you was, we've landed. I have a bit of upgrades to do on the Tornado. If you want to you can go out and run for a while."

Sonic, jumping at the chance, got out of the cot in a split-second. "Heh! You bet... Gotta clear my mind. You know..."

"Like all the times you've told me. I'll be here if you need me."

"Thanks. See ya, Tails!" The hedgehog rushed off, leaving Tails spinning in circles, his fur all windswept.

Wind in his face, tree leaves brushing against his arms, Sonic didn't have a care in the world, except for the desire to run his heart out and go as far as he could without stopping. He loved this freedom more than anything in the world. He turned one sharp corner after another, expertly dodging obstacles and jumping wide gaps. But there was one thing that made him stop and observe... an orange-furred, pigtailed young girl turned the other way. She looked insecure. Sonic decided to see what was going on.

"Hey..." Sonic began. "Are you lost? Do you need anything?" The youngster turned around to face Sonic. She was a young wolf girl, with large scarlet eyes, long eyelashes, and tattered clothing. She looked to be around Tails's age, despite the fact that her chest was... significantly larger than normal. "You're... one of them..." she said, hesitating frequently.

"One of what? I don't know what you're talking about," Sonic protested. "I'm not gonna try to hurt you." But while he was saying that, he found his eyes traveling down to the girl's neck... then her collarbone...

The girl shrunk her position, her arms crossing over her chest. As Sonic came closer, she became gradually more panicked. Finally, she couldn't take it anymore and let out a sharp scream of terror.

Sonic recognized that scream from somewhere. He paused to think about it, and then he realized. This girl was the one who screamed to distract him from Eggman. She wasn't good ally material. "You're working for him..." He said softly, his voice gradually getting louder. "You're working for him, AREN'T YOU?!"

The girl, overcome by fear, didn't understand at all what Sonic had said, she had so much to ask but was so afraid to utter her words: "For... who? What...are you saying... I... don't under...stand..."

"You were the one who screamed to distract me from Eggman!"

"What...? No...that's not... what-"

Sonic rushed towards the girl and pinned her shoulders to a nearby tree. "Listen. Whoever you are, you had better tell me eveything you know about what you're doing with Eggman and how you're trying to destroy me!"

"I don't know...what you're...talking about..." Tears started to form in the girl's eyes. Tears of... lava? They certainly weren't water. "Please...stop it..." She sobbed between words.

"You're getting the wrong idea," Sonic tried to console the girl. "I don't want to hurt you right now. The only way I would is if I found out you-" But he was cut off by somebody punching him in the face, and knocking him to the ground.

"Get your hands off my sister," that someone said. Whoever did had a slight but noticeable accent in his voice, but Sonic couldn't put his finger on which accent it was. _**(A/N: It's a fictional accent ["Powerian"])**_ As he got up and turned around to see who it was. A male wolf around Sonic's age with blue and green fur stood above Sonic. He carried a trident in his hand and had a look in his cobalt eyes like he would run anybody through it.

"I-I'm sorry, I -" Sonic got cut off again.

"Sorry, are you? Maybe if you were sorry, you wouldn't try to force her into giving you information." He knelt down beside the girl as she huddled into his chest, tears still streaming down her face. It was then when Sonic noticed how cut up and scarred this girl's brother's chest was. He had probably gone through a lot before Eggman had... That's right! Sonic asked the same thing as he asked the girl: "You're working for Eggman, aren't you? You were the one who tricked me into thinking you were fending him off for me!"

The brother eyed Sonic like he could spring out and attack any second. "Why in hell would I work for someone who murdered my whole family? Fending him off wasn't a joke. I was saving my sister from being killed."

Sonic still wasn't convinced. "How can I find out for sure?"

The brother rose a couple inches, standing up, but was stopped by his sister grabbing his arm. He turned and knelt again facing her. "It's going to be Ok, Scarlet. I'll be here. "

Scarlet let go of her brother's arm, and he proceeded to turn and face Sonic. "Do you see how many scars and gashes I have? Do you see how many blows I've taken for my sister? I've been doing this for my whole life. Eggman is hunting us down every single day. Because of him, we are living in hell. I can't let him or any of his underlings get close to us. So I have to be on a constant watch for them. And right now, you're distracting me from doing so."

"Oh, I'M distracting you? How ironic of you to think this is my fault," Sonic snarked.

"This isn't over," the brother said coldly. "When we meet again-" But he was cut off by Scarlet's scream.

Another fleet of E-XT robots came in, chained up Scarlet, and carried her off. The brother pushed Sonic aside, hoping to catch up to his sister. Sonic followed them so he could get answers about where the two really stood in the framework of good and evil.

An iron door opened, and the E-XT robots went through, carrying Scarlet all the while. Scarlet was screaming from the pain in her limbs where the chains' spikes went in. The spikes went in further, causing more pain. Scarlet figured that the more she screamed, the deeper the spikes would go into her. So she decided to bite down on her tongue to keep herself from crying out. By the time the robots had reached the destination, she could swear she tasted blood caused by her biting too far into her tongue.

Another door opened, and Scarlet was dropped at the feet of Eggman. The egg-shaped scientist stared down at her. This intimidated her, and he could tell. So he kept his gaze there, a smile gradually forming across his face. "Well, my lovely, aren't you happy to be here?" he asked tauntingly. "Of course you are."

Scarlet was about to scream, but the E-XT robots were back, binding and gagging her. This made her feel even more uncomfortable. Eggman kept staring down at her, with that same expression of desire on his face.

"Now, you know that your family had something that I was after for a long time," Eggman told her. "Each of them could control an element of nature. Their elemental powers came from being blessed by a prized artifact known as the Platinum Emerald."

She did know. Her brother Aquos made her vow not to tell anyone it was in his care. Where was Aquos anyway? He would always come and save her no matter what. Still she swore not to tell.

"You have an idea where it is, I'm sure," Eggman said, still taunting her. "Don't you, love?" He came closer to her, taking a sniff at her hair. "Tell me or suffer the consequences. The choice is yours, my sweet."

Scarlet turned her head away in utter fear of what was coming next. She knew. This happened every time. But did she have a choice? It was this or certain death if she told him.

"You won't spill anything, of course. I should have known." Eggman crept up behind her, closer and closer... Scarlet held her breath and tried not to scream, or else Eggman would do something much worse. She was on the verge of tears when he placed hands on her hips, slowly moving up...closer...

Suddenly, Eggman's hands sprung off of Scarlet, his left glove starting to burn. One of her tears must have seared through his glove and burned his hand. The Doctor didn't look that happy about it, either. "Damn girl..." For the first time since she was taken away, Eggman gave an angry stare into Scarlet's eyes, as if he was looking right through her.

"I'm-I'm sorry..." Scarlet's crying came louder now. "I didn't... mean... to-" A surge of pain rushed through her face as Eggman punched her. She screamed from the impact and this time how much it hurt. Unfortunately it was too late to realize what she'd done as the E-XT robots constricted her more fiercely with the chains.

"Seems you don't learn from experiences. Nevertheless, I'll have to kill you if you tell me or not." Eggman got up and started typing at a keypad.

"No! I wont tell you!" Scarlet's eyes were flooded with her tears of lava.

"Tighten the grip," Eggman ordered the robots without batting an eye. "Crush her bones if you have to."

Scarlet was at a loss for what to say. If she remained silent, then she would be strangled with the chains. But if she divulged the location to Eggman, then it would be the end for her. She had to think of something quickly...

All of a sudden, a fast-moving wave of water gushed in from nowhere. Aquos had come in to save her. "Kotari ku'uni tai!" he said in the ancient Powerian language. The Master's Trident appeared in his hand. As an E-XT robot came close to him, he used the trident to dismantle it in no time at all. In less than a minute, he had broken the chains that held Scarlet captive, as well as exterminating the robots who held those chains.

"Aquos..." growled Eggman. "You... You... How dare you butt in when I attempt to get information on the whereabouts of the Platinum Emerald?! You're no better than your father. It's too bad you couldn't have suffered the same fate as him."

"My father had courage, honor, and good intentions. He even told me that the main reason he lived was to protect and love the Element family and the Platinum Emerald. He was not a coward... unlike you! I have never met a larger coward in my lifetime than you, Eggman!" Aquos shouted angrily.

At that time, Sonic entered from the hole in the wall caused by the tidal wave. "Eggman!" he yelled, noticing Scarlet and this so called "Aquos". "These two... Are they working for you? Be honest with me!"


	3. Deceived

Chapter 3: Deceived

Eggman was about to say no, but he realized that if he did, he'd have to face Sonic, give up Scarlet, and abandon his plan for the Platinum Emerald. Also, Sonic did seem pretty mad. If he lied and said that they were working for him, there could be that one small chance...

He decided to go for it. "Smart hedgehog. I tried hiding it from you all this time." He chuckled. "But I guess it would be better to tell you now than never at all."

Sure enough, his plan worked. As the anger built up inside him, Sonic lunged at Aquos with a Spin Dash, hoping to hit him, but all he did was roll over a wet surface. Sonic looked down to see a huge puddle of water. Wondering where his new rival was, Running in circles was all Sonic could do as Aquos wasn't seen anywhere. Little did the cobalt hedgehog know that the puddle of water was actually reforming into Aquos himself. Sonic knew for sure when he recieved a blow to the back with the bottom of the trident. The heft of the attack caused him to fall into a face-plant.

Sonic got back up, and decided to focus on just Aquos himself to make sure he didn't pull any more sneaky moves like that one. Aquos knew what Sonic was thinking, so he fired a beam of water from the trident. The beam encircled Sonic. While the water was circling around, Aquos leapt out of the way in time for the water to make an impact.

The fight continued for around three minutes. While those minutes passed, Sonic found himself glancing back at Eggman and Scarlet occasionally. Fortunately, he realized that his focus was shifting, and he snapped back into focus on his adversary. It happened about four times before Aquos questioned him.

"What's the matter with you?" Aquos hissed.

"Nothing," Sonic responded, lunging to attack.

At that time, another shrill, feminine scream rang out. This distracted Aquos for a little while, and he was left defenseless as Sonic's attack made its impact. When it had taken its blow, the two stopped for a moment before hearing yet another scream, this time with words:

"AQUOS! AQUOS, HELP ME!"

Sonic and Aquos both looked up to see Scarlet chained to a steel board behind her. She was positioned to lean forward towards another one of those boards, but with knife-blades sticking out of it, aimed for her whole body: one at the top for her head, two below for her eyes, another for the neck, and more and more knives the lower you went.

At this time Sonic was starting to have second-thoughts about whether or not Aquos and Scarlet actually were Eggman's minions. All he could do was watch as Aquos sprang up to save his sister.

It seemed that Eggman was prepared, though. Once again, another fleet of E-XT robots surrounded Aquos and proceeded to chain him, in one shot. Sonic didn't even see the chains ever being sent out, it was so fast. These chains were different though, they were considerably bigger, and by the looks of it, that much stronger as well.

As fast as he was captured, Aquos turned himself into water molecules, hoping to escape, but it was no use as huge electrodes formed at the tips of the spikes, which would have been stuck in his wrists if it weren't for the fact that he could flow through practically anything. Unfortunately, since water is such a good harness for electricity, Aquos's whole body became electrocuted. His body re-formed into his normal self, but Sonic could easily see the cyan and green wolf had much less power and was more vulnerable due to the fact the E-XT robots were pulling him without recieving any resisitance. In fact, Aquos had barely enough strength to lift his head and say a few words: "I'll never...let you...take us..." His words became weaker as his conciousness was slowly fading.

"Nice try," said Eggman, "Either way you'll be dead. In fact I'd love it so much more if you watched." As if on cue, more electrodes formed at the base of the chains and quickly moved from each metal link, to the spikes, and Aquos was shocked back into conciusness in a split-second.

Aquos knew that the only reason Eggman wanted to kill Scarlet was because of the elemental abilities. She was not yet able to fully control fire, which was her element. But the Platinum Emerald had all of the elements combined contained within it. If it was destroyed, then they wouldn't be able to control their elements anymore.

Not able to control elements anymore... This reminded him of a time when he was younger. His father, Striker, was telling him about the Platinum Emerald. "If it breaks, then we won't be able to control elements at all," Striker had said. "And getting it back together would be very difficult. The pieces would appear at their corresponding elemental base. But since all of the elemental bases are scattered around the world with great distance between each, so that makes it hard to travel."

So it was hard...but it was still possible, and it was the only way to save his sister, seeing as he couldn't be too much of use in this state. When the Platinum Emerald breaks, all he would have to do was gather the shards before Eggman did, right?

But still that glimmer of hope would be tiny compared to the guilt he would soon feel for making this decision. "Papa, I'm sorry..." Aquos looked up at Eggman to set his final decision.

"Fine, then. Take the Emerald. But please...Spare my sister."


	4. The Platinum Emerald

Chapter 4: The Platinum Emerald

"What!?" Scarlet spoke up from above. "I thought you said not to give it away!"

"Scar, I'll make this work. I promise..."

"But we won't be able to-" She cut herself off as she saw four E-XT robots closing in on her.

Behind them, Eggman held a remote with a huge red button on it, his thumb at the ready to push it at any second. "Don't make me do this, love."

"Eggman!" Aquos had an obvious tone of anger in his voice, but that anger soon turned into desperation in his following words: "I said spare her...I'm begging you."

"Ah, yes, but you also said that I could take the Platinum Emerald as well." The Doctor's focus shifted to his other prisoner. "Where is it?!" He spat.

"In the sealed chamber on Lakebed Island," answered Aquos. "But I can give it to you right now." He whispered a few words in the ancient Powerian language, and a large silver gem appeared before them. The gem took the form of a four-pointed star with curved edges and gave off a pure-white aura. "It's yours. Do as you wish with it."

"Ah, the sacred jewel of Poweria... You don't know how long I've waited for it to be mine," sneered Eggman.

"But how do I know that you still won't kill my sister?" Aquos questioned Eggman.

"Oh... You don't know that, either!" With that, Eggman pressed the red button on the remote control. The knives on the board extended a little further... and a little further... and a little further...

Until Sonic came on the scene, boosting into the side of the board and pushing it away. Scarlet looked at Sonic with gratitude. She had been saved by the one who she thought was a threat.

"I've stopped you from doing some pretty bad things, Eggman," began Sonic, "but I've never seen you try to take the life of an innocent girl. That's a new low for you."

"You never knew what you were really going up against, you stupid hedgehog," said Eggman. "Eggmanland was just part of the ultimate plan. If I had all of the elements at my will, then i would be in complete control of the world! Not even those elements of nature would be able to resist me! Mwahahahahahahahahahaha!"

Meanwhile, the Platinum Emerald was not receiving any energy from an elemental base. Without that energy, it was incapable of holding itself together. The energy was draining from it at an increased rate, and then...

It shattered. Its pieces floated into the air and gradually faded away. Without the Platinum Emerald, neither Aquos nor Scarlet could control their elements.

Upon realizing that he could not control water with the Platinum Emerald broken, Aquos went nearly berserk. It was as if he lacked nerve endings to feel pain. He ignored the spikes in his wrists, swinging his arms to cause the two robots holding him by the chains smash into each other, deactivating them and releasing the spikes. Then he ran up to Eggman, verbally admonishing him while throwing the occasional punch in the face. Eggman was too bewildered to strike back.

When Eggman came to his senses and realized what was happening to him, he got up, sent out a fleet of robots, and shoved Aquos right in the middle of them. Aquos fought all of them off, and then rushed over to release Scarlet.

"What's...going to happen now?" Scarlet asked as her chains were beng undone by her brother.

"I don't know, hon." Aquos sighed. "Just...go with me on this. I promise it'll turn out." He planted a kiss on his sister's forehead as he loosened the chains around her limbs. "Let's just be glad you're safe."

As Aquos was about to help Scarlet up, a blast of fire barely missed his head. A burning sensation singed his ear bacuse of how close it was. He looked up to see Eggman preparing to launch a second one. With out his water powers, he was comepletely defenseless to any flames. He had no choice but to evade all the shots aimed at him. He felt so ashamed of himself, like a gutless coward avoiding every blow. He was so used to fighting them off, this seemed like it was hardly rational, but it was the only way to stay alive now.

He gave gratitude to the fact that the breaking of the Platinum Emerald didn't alter how his body could adapt and thrive in his element. Thanks to his curved spike of hair and fins around his powerful tail, he was able to swim so fast as to break the sound barrier, much like how he saw Sonic run. The gills in his tail stayed prominent, so he could breathe underwater.

He was relieved that Scarlet could survive these massive blasts of fire and that she wouldn't be burned like he would if he got hit. If he got hit...If he got hit! He had to focus on evading. The embers were being blasted from every corner, as if they were surrounding him.

Soon enough his stamina was starting to lessen as the the fire blasts became more frequent and more profound. He decided in his mind that fighting off was much better and quicker. He persisted to dodge everything aimed at him, as homing lasers gradually became more abundant in Eggman's current arsenal.

It continued for what seemed like hours to Aquos, from how tired he now was. He didn't think he could hold out much longer... As he slowed down his speed a little, he started to observe aroung him. Of course, Eggman was still shooting out the same kinds of ammunition with the same sadistic smile on his face. Sonic was staying by Scarlet's side, which reassured him that his sister would be safe, thought a bit worried if the hedgehog ever did anything to her... but it looked like Sonic was...restrained in some way...

No. Aquos had bigger things to think about than Sonic, like the Platinum Emerald. Like the situation he was in now. Like how he was going to survive at the last of his strength. Like-

His thoughts had cut off as he crumpled to the ground, broken down to the point of not being able to lift his head without his whole body shaking in desperation of keeping it up.

This was it. he could tell as he looked over to Eggman, who was preparing to fire a... knife, it looked like... his vision started to be blurred as he could hear the echoed screams of his sister, fearing that he would die, here and now...

Black spots appeared before his eyes, becoming more prominent with every second when soon all he saw was pure black. He heard the sendoff for the knife, about to stab into his chest, when he heard a huge- CLANK!

After a couple seconds, Aquos wondered why he wasn't feeling any pain... Was it because the knife already went through him so fast? No, his breathing was still steady... every sense except for his vision was normal, He could still feel the ground before him, and soon he felt something else go under him, which proceeded to carry him to another surface, but that was soon fading as he lost all sense of everything...


	5. Flight to Lakebed Island

**Chapter 5: Flight to Lakebed Island**

Aquos awoke on a cot in a...plane of some sort, at least that's what he thought. The only flying vehicles he had been on were the various Egg Carriers, but this was different on so many levels.

He sat up and looked around, trying to get some sense on where he was. In the distance, he did see Sonic, and another...A two-tailed fox who looked to be his sister's age operating the plane. Aquos was still lost as to where he was, but, he never knew where he was at any time. He and Scarlet never stayed in the same place for more than a day, knowing that Eggman would find out where they were and hunt them down. They were nomads, and certainly didn't show any signs of quitting.

He looked around for a little longer sitting up in the cot, as he still didn't have the will to stand, when he heard a familiar voice ring out:

"Aquos!"Scarlet ran up to the cot and wrapped her arms around her brother.

"Scar! Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, but... I was worried that you were going to be killed..."

Aquos ran a hand over her head. "I've told you a thousand times, hon. I'm going to be here for you, always. Nothing's going to change that, not even if I did die."

Scarlet rested her head on his shoulder. She started shaking, like she was about to cry. "I was really scared..."

"There's no need to be scared, Scarlet." Aquos wrapped an arm around his sister to calm her down. "Not here, at least..."

A few minutes passed in which the two siblings were in complete silence. Not for fear of being heard, but simply because there wasn't anything left to say. No number of comforts could protect them from what was to come, as it was all too predictable and too harsh for Aquos to try and reassure Scarlet for the umpteenth time.

"Uh..." Aquos and Scarlet turned around to see Sonic. "Hate to break up the moment, but, uh... you're wanted. Tails wants to know more about you guys so he can try to shed some light on the Platinum Emerald's whereabouts."

"You told him?" Said Aquos. He figured this "Tails" must be some sort of sidekick of Sonic's.

"Well, there was no reason not to. Are you well enough to stand, at least?"

"I should be." Sure enough, Aquos's condition was much better now. He went over to Tails with Scarlet following close behind. When they got there the kitsune was tinkering on an electronic device, the plane presumably put on autopilot. "So your name is Tails, right?" he asked.

"Well, my real name is Miles Prower, but everybody always calls me Tails," responded Tails, not looking up from whatever he was working on.

"What's that you're working on, Tails?" Sonic wondered.

"I'm adding new software to the Miles Electric that can detect pieces of the Platinum Emerald. It'll be able to pinpoint their exact location, so with the help of Sonic's speed, we can get them all and put it back together before it's too late. So what do you think?"

Aquos paused to think about what Tails said, staring at the Miles Electric and the locations of the Platinum Emerald. "I doubt it's going to be that easy," he finally said. "The locations will be heavily guarded by Eggman's robots. And the Platinum Emerald is completely vulnerable to the forces of evil. If it were whole, it would be able to protect itself from those who'd want to misuse its power. But since it's in pieces, it can't do that.

"Furthermore, the elemental bases are vastly different environments up to their extreme points. Since all the other Guardians of the Elements are dead either due to natural causes or Eggman's cruelty, the usual climate has gotten out of control. You'd have to risk extreme temperatures, both high and low. You could be drowned, poisoned, or even strangled by unruly vines. Elemental bases are even located at the very edges of time and space, and who knows what can be found there... Plus, since Eggman is constantly hunting us down, if we die, it will become even more difficult because we're the only two guardians left."

Scarlet looked out from behind her brother and clung to his arm. "But I can't control fire yet, so it'll be even harder to get through..." She tightened her grip around Aquos's arm for reasons Sonic could only guess. Maybe she still felt threatened. Maybe it was because she'd grown too attached to her brother. But nevertheless...

"We didn't count on this being easy," Sonic protested. "We're fully prepared to do whatever it takes to retrieve those pieces. But don't think we don't need your help. Your knowledge about the Platinum Emerald and the elemental bases makes it so much easier, not to mention the fact that you're such a competent fighter even without your element."

"I only use my physical strength when I have to," admitted Aquos. "But I guess there's no other option."

"Well, I guess it's settled," Sonic declared. "We're looking for the pieces of the Platinum Emerald, and restoring it to full power!"

"So according to the Miles Electric, there are 13 pieces of the Platinum Emerald, and the closest one is located on Lakebed Island," Tails announced. "I presume that's your element?" He turned to Aquos.

"It's only obvious," replied Aquos. "If the word 'lake' is in it, then it should be easy enough for you to decide what element it is."

"Hahah...right..." Tails went with Aquos's snark as a joke. Fortunately, Aquos didn't notice the shakiness in Tails's voice. "I'll set a course as soon as I finish updating the Miles Electric."

"Sounds good." Said Aquos. "I'll be waiting once you do." He went back over to the cot area and sat down against the wall just to think through all of what was to come. He knew that one elemental base would lead to another, he just had to follow the climate and the transitions of the elements... Every location would be heavily guarded by Eggman's robots, like always, but he'd probably have to be on extra watch as the Doctor would probably attack more often, with bigger and more powerful fleets now that the Platinum Emerald was shattered...

It then occurred to him that since he didn't have his water powers, he would tire more quickly... He would hate to think what would happen if Scarlet were to be captured... He might not be able to rescue her in time, and he certainly couldn't take any chances, seeing as what sick and sadistic things Eggman would do to the girl. He also hated how he couldn't do anything when Scarlet was always harassed by Eggman. Even the thought of it and if he ever didn't rescue her in time before anything bad happened.

Aquos looked beside him to see her sleeping peacefully against his shoulder. He was glad to see his sister in a calm state of mind, finally after everything over the past day. _She may have a faint heart, but she's a real trooper_, he thought. Scarlet was just a little over a year old when Eggman attacked and killed their parents. She barely knew them or remembered them. The only family she had ever known was her big brother, and had grown completely attached. Aquos always tried not to think how she would cope if he ever died, but at the same time, he knew he had to protect her with his life and would have to die for her if things got more out of hand than it already did. He dreaded when the time would come in the future, if it ever did happen. He decided not to think about it as he leaned his head against the wall of the Tornado and continued to strategize about finding the Platinum Emerald before it was too late.


	6. Lakebed Island I

Chapter 6: Lakebed Island I

Eventually, the Tornado landed on Lakebed Island, where a vicious monsoon was raging. It took Tails a long time to land due to the rapid winds, and when he did land, a wing got dented due to collisions with a sharp branch. But dented wing or intact wing, they had landed and were ready to find the first piece of the Platinum Emerald.

"Guys..." Aquos hesitated, "...we've got a problem. Scarlet can't leave the plane."

"What?" Sonic said in disbelief. "Why?"

"If Scarlet touches so much as a droplet of water, she'll fall into a coma."

"Huh?"

"She's practically made of fire," Aquos responded, giving Sonic a look that meant, "Are you dumb?"

"So she has to stay in here, or else she'll risk getting rained on and fainting?" Tails clarified.

"She can't be left alone for a long time, either. She's scared of being isolated, and there's a huge chance that Eggman will be hunting her down," continued Aquos. "So one of us is going to have to stay with her. It'll probably be me-"

But he was cut off. "No. I need you to help me get through this," Sonic protested. "This place corresponds with your element, so you know it well. You'll have to come with me and help me out if I need it."

"I'll stay with her," said Tails. "Take this Miles Electric, and we can keep in touch."

Sonic received the Miles Electric, thanked Tails, and he and Aquos went off to find the piece of the emerald.

"So according to this map we have to go all the way to the edge of the island, and..." Sonic stopped to process. "Under...water... ..." He started to get goosebumps on his arms as he realized he had to swim. He figured that Aquos must have seen how much sonic was shivering and acting...a little weird.

"Yeah... What's the...big deal about that?"

"I'm... I'm..." Sonic tried to keep his words in, but to no avail as he blurted out: "I CAN'T SWIM! I'M AFRAID OF THE WATER, OK!?" Sonic paused to realize how loud he was. "I'm sorry...I didn't mean for that to come out that loud, but I'm getting kind of paranoid that if I put my nose up, I might drown..."

"You could have just told me... I can do all the deep-underwater stuff if it's that bad to you. And plus, can't you just run through all of this?"

"Good idea." With that, Sonic blasted off farther into the storm, leaving Aquos behind. The wolf in question let out an exasperated sigh and proceeded to follow after Sonic in the first act.

Lakebed Island, Act 1  
Sonic and Aquos were immediately plunged into water, which obviously made Sonic freak. "Gah! Can't... breathe..." He then realized he shouldn't have opened his mouth as water made its way down his throat, taking up his airspace, and stamping the 10 countdown above his head.

As Sonic was swimming...or...running-in-water in circles trying to find a source of air, all Aquos could do was facepalm. "To your left, Sonic." Aquos sighed in disappointment for his newfound ally.

As Sonic took in the air from an air bubble, he calmed down. "Phew! I thought for sure I was a goner!"

"No kidding. Let's go." Aquos began to swim toward a fleet of underwater E-XT's. Sonic followed closely, trying not to lose his sanity again and wanting this time of him being underwater to end fast. He jumped up and Homing-Attacked part of the fleet, while Aquos used some sort of kick attack, like a cross between Sonic's Somersault attack he used a couple years ago when defeating the Deadly Six, and Rouge's all-too-famous Screw Kick. The spinning motion Aquos used created an underwater current that moved toward the robots and was strong enough to tear off the robots' metal limbs. The water then travelled through the holes that once held their arms and legs and malfunctioned the system, subsequentially taking out the machinery inside.

Sonic was surprised he didn't get creeped out at the sight of the robots in question. He didn't know exactly why, because he did the total opposite when he previously came into an encounter with them a couple days ago. He thought the water blurring his vision had something to do with it, or the fact that he wasn't alone, and the someone he was with was used to these types of Eggman's armies.

Sonic took a glance at the Miles Electric, where a radar showed signals of where the Platinum Emerald shards were located. He sighed as he and Aquos would have to go through several more Acts until they could retrieve the first shard. Oh, well, he thought, all the more to run through when I can! He continued to do his best to "swim" (read: run though the water) while attacking more E-XT's.

This went on for a while, maybe about three or four minutes, until an overpowering current made its way over to Sonic and Aquos in a whirlpool. Of course, Sonic with his impulsiveness and attitude, ran against the current, hoping to power through until it stopped. It was then he noticed that this water didn't hinder his ability of speed. Obviously he wasn't going as fast as he could go because of the current, but he figured if the water was calm he could bring out his full speed. Still, he continued to run against the current, until he heard Aquos: "Don't fight it!"

"Why?" Sonic asked, putting himself at risk of losing his air.

"It'll just waste your energy! Besides, the direction of this current will bring us closer to the end!"

Sonic looked at the Miles Electric once more after he turned around and ran with the moving water. Sure enough, the radar showed they were getting closer and closer by the second. He also found they were rising toward the surface as the current was ending. As the two progressed toward the very end of the current, a group of springs came into view, and they were bolted out of the water into the deluge of the harsh skies.

Sonic and Aquos were suspended in midair for a couple seconds. Sonic looked down to see the ground seemingly covered with spikes. "Uh...Aquos?" he said.

"Don't worry, I'm aware of the ground. There should be some more robots we can trash in the sky." Sonic and Aquos looked into the distance to see the E-XT figures getting bigger as they were getting closer. Just like in the water, Sonic Homing Attacked half of them, but this time Aquos somersaulted in midair before his foot made a hole through the robot and used its remains as platforms to take off towards the next one.

After they defeated about a dozen robots each, Sonic looked down again and noticed the spikes weren't replacing the flooded ground. "It's clear to land!" he proclaimed.

"You sure? No robots left?" Aquos asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure!" With that, Sonic and Aquos descended toward the ground where a Goal Ring awaited them. They passed through in a split second, and almost immediately the area became calmer and more restored.

"Hmm... Is it me, or did the monsoon just calm down over there?" Sonic asked.

Aquos looked back at where he and Sonic came from. Sonic was right. The monsoon that was previously raging had calmed down to just a calm, steady rainfall. The wind was reduced to a light, gentle breeze, and the sky became lighter. Still cloudy, but not as dark. "Looks that way," he finally said after taking a close look at the weather behind him. "But it's still going strong up ahead."

"Well, there's only one way we can fix that," Sonic said confidently, running toward the next storm-ridden section of the island. Aquos followed behind.

Lakebed Island, Act 2  
This time, there was no plunge into water. But the monsoon was much more violent that what they had previously faced, so the water levels were gradually rising. If Sonic and Aquos traveled fast, then they would be able to finish without the water level becoming too high. They ran along the ground, going through loops, jumping with springs, and destroying E-XT robots.

Dusk fell, and after 30 seconds, the water had risen up to Sonic's waist. That was relatively problem-free for Sonic, because he could still run. But the E-XT robots had already converted to a variation of their aquatic models. They were almost the same, except they floated on the surface. Sonic had an idea on how to defeat them in this form. He crouched below the surface, jumped up and knocked the robots down from underneath, and then Homing Attacked them on the head. It worked. He then proceeded to defeat more robots in this manner.

One minute and thirty seconds later, the water was exactly seven feet deep. Aquos was swimming way ahead of Sonic, when he noticed a strange switch. He triggered it, and a vent in the ground opened up, draining the water. Sonic would have been about to drown then, but the drain saved him.

The two ventured further ahead, but then they had to go into water again. They jumped in and went forward, knocking out any E-XT robots that stood in their way. Then they came across another current. Aquos analyzed the current, came to the conclusion that it would not lead them in the right direction, and told Sonic to follow behind, resisting the current. The farther they went against the it, the more obstacles there was. First came the springs, then mines, and finally E-XT's. This didn't seem to bother them though, they were used to this kind of thing for years, fighting robots, evading mines and such.

_Eggman's gotta step up his game sometime..._ Aquos thought. _It can't possibly be like this for the whole time we're here, can it?_ He continued to search for something like a spring or dash panel, but it was no use. The water was moving so fast that everything was blurred. He decided to leave the thought to rest for the time being until the current slowed down.

The one problem: It never did. Fortunately, Aquos didn't seem to be losing strength. He looked behind him to see if Sonic was OK. Sure enough the hedgehog didn't seem fatigued in any way. Still, there had to be some way this whirlpool could stop. One thing that did cross Aquos's mind was if Eggman had already collected the Shard and gained control over the water, but then again, it would be all the more to get through this and hopefully find some answers.

Unfortunately for Aquos, all that critical thinking made him lose his footing, and trip onto something with a hard surface. He looked down to see another one of those switches that brought out a vent. He pushed it, and sure enough, the whirlpool started to be drained into the vent that became visible at the bottom the where the current once was. Now he could spend a little time to find his bearings and then move forward without being pushed back.

Aquos proceeded to catch up to Sonic, and the two of them then proceeded to defeat more E-XT robots and reach the end.


	7. Backstory

Chapter 7: Backstory

The night grew darker as black clouds inched their way over the stars. In fact everything would have been pitch black if it weren't for the artificial light from the Miles Electric, guiding Sonic and Aquos through the storm.

"There should be a canopy of trees somewhere to the east," Aquos said. "We can rest there for the night."

"Got it," Sonic started to head east in search for where Aquos had directed. "Hey, how do you know this place so well?"

Aquos put his head down,sadly reminiscing, but managed to put on a half-smile. "I was born here. We also lived here before...things got... out of control..."

"When Eggman came?" Sonic thought he probably knew what had happened, but wanted to know more as his newfound ally nodded his head yes. "Could you maybe tell me a bit more? I mean, If we're doing all this together, I think I should probably know some things about you. If it doesn't bother you."

"It doesn't. But I think we should wait until we-"

"No need." Sonic had reached the sheltered area of thick plant and tree leaves, and an abundance of foliage around the perimeter of it. As the two sat down against some trees, Aquos took a breath before telling Sonic his life.

"Since as far back as I can remember, I was taught how to fight by my father. He explained to me that defense was important, as a lot of people would attack our kind to steal our power. Even before Eggman started, there was many others who tried to do the same as him. My mother would also heavily homeschool me. So much that by the time I was four I knew as much as someone about three times my age."

"Wow!" Sonic exclaimed, but soon realizing he had interrupted. "Sorry. Go on."

"Scarlet was born when I was five and a half. At three months early, she didn't weigh that much and considerably smaller than average. My schooling slowed down a bit as Mom had to pay a lot of attention to Scar. Still, I kept up on my studies and my fighting.

"A few months after I turned six, I was asleep when I heard a huge crash, and Mom started screaming. I ran out to see what was going on, and I saw Eggman pressing something electrical to her throat. Dad came out, too, and Eggman sent out those E-XT robots. They were mobbing him like nothing you would believe. But Dad managed to get them all, and he was actually pretty damn close to saving Mom. But... Eggman shot a knife at his back, and that was the last I saw of him.

"Knowing that I would be next if I was found, I ran away. But then I realized that Scarlet was still asleep. I turned around and came back for her, hoping that nothing had happened to her. Sure enough, she was safe. I picked her up, and then I heard something go through the house. Eggman was sending his demolition robots to tear it down. I had to get myself and Scarlet away from there as fast as possible. I never ran faster than I did that day. When we got to the water, I positioned Scarlet so she wouldn't get wet, and I swam as fast as I possibly could. "The next day, Eggman decided to attack us again. He had this huge, three-bladed knife-type weapon, and he was going to slice Scarlet across the middle with it. I couldn't just sit there and watch it happen, so I ran in front of her and managed to deflect most of the blow. However, I was still marked up in the process." Aquos gestured to the three scars across his torso. "I still wear the scars to this day."

"The Doctor has so many... _creative_ methods of murdering your family, doesn't he?" Sonic mused.

"Makes me sick," replied Aquos.

"But wait... how come he hasn't tried to come after you and actually kill you right on the spot?" Sonic asked. "If Eggman is such a mass-murderer, why wouldn't he do that?"

"His current strategy is to get us when we're at our most vulnerable," continued Aquos. "Most descendents of my family are able to fully control their element at the age of 11. I was 6 back when I shielded Scarlet from the knife. Due to my rigorous upbringing in both fight training and home-schooling, I was able to control water early. Since Scarlet doesn't have that much physical strength, her only defense is the relatively limited control over fire. But now, since the Platinum Emerald was broken and scattered, she's powerless. This would be the perfect opportunity for Eggman to get at her, so this is why we're protecting her so fiercely. ... Speaking of which, I hope she's OK."

"Don't worry, Tails racked up a huge security and defense system to the Tornado last week. It should probably hold back and destroy those robots if they attack. I'm sure you're sister will be fine." As Sonic did his best to reassure Aquos, he still felt something wasn't right... He decided to ignore it. It probably wasn't anything important... "Anyway, I'm gonna try to go to sleep. We're still not even halfway to finding the Platinum Emerald, and I'm completely bushed!"

"Yeah," Aquos chuckled, "Can't argue there. Besides, we'll have to get up before dawn if we don't want to take any chances of Eggman finding anything useful."

"OK, good night." Sonic found a patch of leaves to lie on and closed his eyes.

"You too." Said Aquos, praying and pleading inside his head for Scarlet to be alright the next day.

A rude awakening showed itself to Sonic and Aquos as an extremely loud alarm signal erupted from the Miles Electric. Sonic checked the flashing red screen. "It's Tails!" Sonic exclaimed.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Aquos, immediately alert after a few seconds earlier, already knew what it was before Sonic opened the message: Something had happened to Scarlet.

"Tails! What's going on!" Sonic half asked, half yelled.

"Big problems! Eggman's hijacking the Tornado! He already has the first shard of the Platinum Emerald and he's trying to take Scarlet!"

"What about your defense system?"

"It's not holding up! I'm doing my best to protect her but I don't think I can hold out much longer..." Tails looked past the screen as his eyes widened in fear. Only a fragment of his scream could be heard before the screen went static and soon after, black.

Sonic turned around to get Aquos, but couldn't see anyone, and soon figured Aquos already went ahead. The hedgehog ran ahead to catch up, but there was still no sign. Assuming Aquos was still far ahead, he proceeded to the next act.


	8. Lakebed Island II

Lakebed Island, Act 3

The Miles Electric was displaying a tracking system of the hijacked Tornado. Sonic knew he had to catch up to the Tornado before it got away. He accelerated to full speed, wasting very little time to get Rings and trash E-XT's. All he was focused on was catching up to the plane.

Luckily for him, there were many dash panels along the ground that he could use to keep himself at top speed. Whenever he saw one, he'd make a beeline for it and keep going forward. This strategy proved to be very useful, as the Tornado was accelerating at a greater rate. But with the dash panels on Sonic's side, there was a more level playing field.

Eventually, Sonic caught up to the Tornado. But it was so high up that Sonic couldn't reach it. Lucky for him, a spring was waiting nearby, along with a balloon in the sky to allow more jump distance. He jumped on the spring, bounced off the balloon, and managed to grab onto the Tornado's undercarriage.

All he had to do now was wait until it landed. But Eggman must have realized that Sonic was latching on to the plane, because suddenly the Tornado was flying in a more erratic manner, attempting to shake Sonic off. Sonic just held on for dear life, dodging obstacles that would pop up in the sky every now and then. This strategy was as effective as the previous one with the dash panels. Sometimes, when there was a whole line of obstacles on one side, he would jump to the undercarriage on the other side, waiting for the obstacles to pass.

Suddenly, the Tornado let out a huge burst of speed. Sonic figured Eggman knew he was still on. The sudden accelerations kept happening, each one more forceful and powerful than the last. Sonic did manage to stay on for a while, but due to the growing power of the short bursts, Sonic eventually could not hold anymore.

He was falling faster, farther... He couldn't bear to look down to see how close he was to crashing onto the ground when...

A sudden force made him bounce back towards the sky. Sonic turned to see the balloon he had previously jumped on to the tornado. As he went higher, he found another. Over time, balloons would appear for him as if they knew of his urgency to confront Eggman. he got closer and closer to the tornado, when a final balloon made Sonic spring right into the plane.

Sonic could not believe his eyes. Right in front of his face was Scarlet, so heavily restrained that she could barely breathe. Tails was restrained right next to her, although not as heavily. As he looked closely near the cockpit, he could see Aquos battling dozens after dozens of robots. He seemed to be tiring fast, though. Sonic stayed put as to not leave Tails and Scarlet alone in fear of what Eggman would do to them, but his prescence was enough to confront his longtime enemy.

"Ah, Sonic the Hedgehog. You missed one hell of a party," Eggman said "Too bad you weren't there to see it. You should have seen what fun it was for me to tie up your friends."

"Well, guess what, Egghead?" Sonic shot back. "I'm going to have even more fun rescuing them. Try and stop me!"

"You bet I will!" Eggman replied. With a snap of his fingers, the E-XT robots had chained up Aquos as well as binding and gagging him, to give Eggman some time to land the plane very quickly, yet at the same time, quite smoothly. Once the plane landed, he exited, carrying a large box. He pulled a remote control out of his pocket, pointed it at the box, and pressed a button. The box exploded, leaving behind a multitude of small pieces. Mechanisms inside the pieces activated, and they started to put themselves together to form a combat mecha designed specifically for this occasion. The mecha was rather sturdy-looking, pointed at the top, and had propellers coming out of the sides.

Eggman pressed the button on the remote control again, and an escalator leading to a control panel inside extended. "Come out and fight me, hedgehog!" he taunted, riding the escalator to the control panel. Once he got inside, the mehca flew to the water, where it went below the surface, waiting for Sonic.

Sonic knew he had no choice but to face this new mecha. He turned to Tails and Scarlet, told them he'd be back soon, and ran off to face Eggman.

Lakebed Island Boss: Egg Torpedo

Sonic plunged into the water. He saw a huge air bubble to his right. He ran right towards it and inhaled deeply. The air would hopefully last him until the next bubble. The Egg Torpedo was far ahead of him, so he boosted towards it.

Right about then, he saw missiles being aimed at him. Then he heard Tails's voice over the Miles Electric. "Keep an eye out for the color of the missiles. The yellow ones will go right ahead, and you can dodge them. But the red ones will home in on you, so you have to be sure to lead them into rocks or coral."

"How are you even talking to me when you're tied up?" Sonic asked, confused.

"The Miles Electric was left on, and it's at my feet. We can still communicate with each other."

"Ok, that's good. I'll tell you when I need you again." Sonic looked at the missiles. All of them so far were yellow. When they were launched, Sonic made a mad dash to avoid them. Lucky for him, none of them hit. He boosted himself closer, noticing that more yellow missiles were coming at him. He braced himself, and when they launched, he dodged all of them again.

Just then, Sonic saw a bunch of red missiles being loaded and ready to launch. He looked around for a path filled with things to lead the missiles into. Fortunately, there were a bunch of rocks to his right. He went there, and the missiles were fired. he led them into a rock, another rock, and a tall piece of coral, respectively.

Sonic noticed that he was really close to Eggman. Then he saw the Egg Torpedo will splitting in two. A giant yellow missile shot out of each half. Sonic boosted between them, getting even closer. But then he got confused. There were... two Eggmen? He consulted Tails for help.

"Two Eggmen? Wait... The one on the bottom's not the real Eggman! it's just a decoy. Hit the real Eggman on the top," Tails said.

Sonic followed Tails's advice and hit the half on the top. It exploded, and there was a huge air bubble left over. Sonic breathed it in, and continued on, pursuing the mecha.

After dodging more sets of missiles, he got closer again. The mecha split, and Sonic looked for the decoy. It was on the top this time, so he went for the bottom, being rewarded with another large air bubble that would last him a long time.

Suddenly, Eggman took to the air. Sonic followed behind as closely as he could, finding a Dash Ring that propelled him into the air. He landed on a backward-moving missile. More of them came into view, providing a path for him to get to Eggman. As quickly as he could, he jumped from missile to missile, being careful not to waste too much time.

As he got closer, small robots appeared along with the missiles. Sonic homing-attacked them whenever they appeared, along with jumping between the flying missiles. He was getting closer to the Egg Torpedo, when the missles got bigger and moved faster. But Sonic didn't give up, and he kept making his way closer. When he finally reached the Mecha, Eggman shot homing lasers. Luckily, Sonic's super speed was enough to dodge them, and he homing attacked the clear part where Eggman was going insane.

"Stupid hedgehog! You broke my precious control center!" Eggman yelled in a rage. He escaped in his Egg Mobile while Sonic jumped away from the Egg Torpedo. The mecha exploded, leaving pieces of metal everywhere headed toward the Tornado where the others were. Sonic quickly Homing-Attacked them and proceeded to land in the Tornado where he found Eggman also aiming to land at the same place.

Sonic boosted downward to gain a lead over the doctor, and landed with Eggman still trailing, but the cobalt hedgehog figured he wouldn't land for a while.

As he walked to where he saw last saw Tails, Aquos and Scarlet, he found Aquos and Tails undoing Scarlet's restraints. The girl still couldn't breathe properly, and her sense of panic only made things worse.

"Scar, don't push yourself, we're getting you out." Aquos said in an attempt to comfort his sister, but to no avail as she let out a sharp scream of fear and pain.

"Seems like Eggman really outdone himself with his confinement techniques, huh?" said Sonic as he ran over to help out.

"She would have calmed down, I don't know why she's like this... I try to ask her what is wrong, and she won't talk..." Aquos was in a frenzy of undoing chains, ropes, and other things Sonic couldn't recognize.

"Tails, by any chance did you see what Eggman did to her?" Sonic hoped to get some answers.

"...No..." Tails stated, hesitant as if sonething bad would happen if he said the wrong thing. " I... I had my wrists tied together and was blindfolded after I disconnected my conversation with you, and when he took whatever it was off my eyes and tore off the rope around my wrists, I saw her like this and Aquos mobbed by so many robots. Then he went and chained me up, too.

"Luckilly one of my wrists had only been loosely chained. I freed myself, blew up the rest of the robots and Aquos and I started undoing everything around Scarlet."

"Wonder what Eggman did, then..." questioned Sonic.

"I think I might have found out." Aquos pulled off some more chains, revealing Scarlet's shirt rolled up to just below her chest, leaving her stomach bare with a thick piece of leather constricted around it, blood dripping out and leaking around the edges.

"Oh, my God..." Sonic was left in shock at the sight of this and at the thought of it.

"There's got to be something on the other side piercing her." Aquos said, still loosening everything else before focusing on the leather strap. "Eggman must have tied this so tightly the blood was left in, only to have more leak out. For torture." He fumbled around with the strap, attempting to undo it.

"Be... gentle!" Scarlet yelled.

"Sorry, Scar." Aquos planted a kiss on Scarlet's forehead. "I'll be as gentle with this as I can," he replied, continuing to try to get the strap undone. He succeeded. There was a row of thin, yet extremely sharp spikes on the inside of the strap, all dripping red. "I'm surprised this hasn't pierced through any of her internal organs."

"I'll try to find some Medibots to patch her up," Tails suggested. "And if I have time, I'll install another security system around the Tornado."

"That won't be necessary," Eggman's voice said from behind everyone. Sonic turned around to see the nefarious doctor standing in the doorway, with an E-XT robot by his side. "I've come back for my lovely Scarlet."

He stared down at her the same way he always did, another smile forming on his face.

"Take one step towards her, and you'll deeply regret it," Aquos threatened.

"Try me," Eggman countered, motioning for the E-XT robot to come closer to Scarlet.

"Sonic, you take care of that robot," Aquos said firmly. "Tails, you go heal Scarlet. I'll keep Eggman away from her."

Sonic braced himself, and then got into Spin Dash position, mentally noting where the E-XT robot was. He spun, only to be spiked by the E-XT's defense mechanisms. The E-XT fired a laser beam in Sonic's direction. It missed. Sonic got up, jumped, and landed a stomp attack on the E-XT's head. The robot dropped to the ground, temporarily stunned. Sonic used every attack he could on it, successfully breaking it apart.

Meanwhile, Tails deployed a pair of Medibots to heal Scarlet's wounds. _Fortunately, nothing critical was pierced_, he thought to himself. _But those spikes did go in really deep. Eggman's more sociopathic than I ever realized. _

"Get off me, you meddler!" Eggman snapped, being held down by Aquos.

"You deserve this, Eggman. Nobody harms my sister and gets away with it!"Aquos responded, tying Eggman up with some of the leftover chains. He pushed Eggman out the door. "Tails, prepare to take off. We're leaving Eggman here until he catches up with us."

"But what about the Egg Mobile?" Sonic asked.

"I have a hunch the Platinum Emerald shard is in there. After that, we could dump it off wherever. The fat monster was asking for it from the beginning."

"If you say so," Sonic answered.

Tails started to guide the Tornado off Lakebed Island. As they took off, Sonic inspected the Egg Mobile. "Ugh... it reeks," he said to himself as he looked through it. "But at least I found what we were looking for."

"The Platinum Emerald!" Aquos and Tails said at the same time.

Sonic walked over to Aquos, shard in hand. "Here. I believe this belongs to you."

Aquos took the shard, feeling a sharp surge of energy course through his entire body. At first, he was unsure of what it was, but after seeing the shard in his hand and taking a mental note of where it came from, he realized... He tried to shoot a weak beam of water from the palm of his hand. Sure enough, the floor of the Tornado had a small puddle of water on it. He compressed the molecules and made it disappear. "My water powers have returned!" he announced, pleasantly surprised.

"Sweet!" said Sonic. "Just... try not to use them near me, 'kay?"

"Sorry, Sonic, but it can't be helped now. Next place is Scorched Valley, and we'll need water to get through."

_Aw, crap_, Sonic thought to himself. _This is gonna be a long ride..._


	9. Scorched Valley I

Chapter 9: Scorched Valley I

Pain.

That's all Scarlet felt as she woke up in the arms of her brother. The second she opened her eyes, it came back. What did Eggman do to her? Something sadistic and immoral, that was for sure.

Scarlet stared at the tourniquet Tails's Medibots put around her torso. She had no idea what had caused an injury so great that it had to be placed. She knew immediately who caused it, but wasn't sure how.

"A...Aquos..." She spoke weakly as it hurt to talk.

"Oh, you're awake." Aquos pushed away a stray hair from Scarlet's eyes. "Couldn't see you with that hair in your face."

"What...happened...?"

Aquos gestured towards the discarded leather strap with the spikes. "Eggman had that tied around you." The spikes still had dried blood on them, and showed signs of something similar to corrosion due to the minimal lava flow in her bloodstream.

As Scarlet tried to turn her head back from taking a glance at the strap, a sudden pain in her stomach made her recoil. The sharp pang that was added to the previous ache, along with the shock of it, was enough to make her tense and in fear if it ever happened again. She started shaking as a single tear rolled down her cheek.

"Scar, just relax..." Aquos ran a hand over her head and carried her over to the cot in the corner. "Rest here for awhile and you''l be fine. We've still a long time before we land. I'll be with Sonic and Tails, but I'll check up on you every so often. Okay?"

Scarlet nodded her head sofly as to not rupture anything more as her brother went toward the cockpit of the Tornado. She then closed her eyes and fell into a deep sleep.

When she woke up, the Tornado had landed in a volcano-filled area rife with smoke and lava. She recognized this place. This was Scorched Valley, the place she was born. She suddenly felt comfortable and, for once, not scared, sad, or emotionally hurt. She noticed that the pain from the spike-strap was gone. She wasn't sure why, but she was glad it was. She removed her tourniquet, ran out of the Tornado, made a beeline for the nearest pool of lava, and suddenly started to drink from it.

Sonic was not sure why Scarlet was drinking from the pool of lava, or, for that matter, why she was healed so rapidly. He asked Aquos about those two things.

"Well, you know how Scarlet can't come in contact with water in any way, right? That includes on the inside. So she drinks lava instead. Also, the reason why she healed so quickly is because Scorched Valley is a Powerian elemental base. Her element connects with the element that dominates this area, which is fire. If a member of our family's element corresponds with an elemental base, then they are healed from any injury or disease that they may have gotten when they were not in the area. If the elemental energy is strong enough, then they may even be brought back from the dead."

"So why didn't your family come back to life after they died?" Sonic continued.

"They weren't killed in their elemental base. Either that, or the elemental energy was too weak to revive them."

"I guess Eggman must have known that, because you two are the last two left."

"Right. And to stop him from killing me or Scarlet, we have to get the other shards, and quickly."

"So what are we waiting for?"

Scorched Valley, Act 1

Sonic saw a line of Rings ahead. He followed them, and right at the end, a different looking E-XT robot teleported in front of him. That startled Sonic, making him trip over. Fortunately, there was nothing on the ground that could hurt him and make him lose Rings, so he got up and took out the E-XT. He then continued on his way, expecting more teleporting E-XT robots to come out. Surprisingly, as he progressed, the teleporting E-XT's only appeared occasionally. However, Sonic still thought it would be a good idea to keep on his guard.

The area was filled with lava and occasional blasts of fire coming out from underground. Sonic did the best he could to avoid getting burned. Fortunately, every time he accidentally got burned, he had at least one ring with him, so he was relatively unharmed.

Around two minutes later, he found a dash panel leading to a Dash Ring. He was launched into the air, and when he landed, he found himself behind a small box that floated in the lava. Before stepping onto the box, he looked around. There were spike launchers on either side of the lava-filled route. they were aimed at about Sonic's foot level.

Looks like I'm going to have to risk it, Sonic thought to himself. He got on the box, and it started moving forward. Every time the spikes were launched from the side walls, Sonic jumped over them, making sure he could land on the box that moved forward underneath him.

"If we go underground deep enough, there should be a pathway to another volcano." Said Aquos. "We're going to have to go up through it, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Look for a tunnel, follow it. I'll be right behind you."

"Thanks." Sonic proceeded to run deeper into the volcano, following enemies and dash panels alike until an underground tunnel greeted them, a wide gaping entrance with lava coursing through cracked rocks, like it was the life and blood of the entire tunnel.

"This has got to be it," Sonic proclaimed.

"There's no denying it." replied Aquos. "My father told me about this. It's actually one of the most famous landmarks of Poweria. It'll always lead you in the right direction, no forks or wrong turns. The only catch is that the enormous amounts of lava makes it hard to get through. I'll cover you, though. My water is strong enough to put out lava. You just focus on getting through as fast as possible."

"Right." With that, Sonic Spin-Dashed into the mouth of the tunnel onto a broken part of the aforementioned cracked rock across a small pool of lava. Soon after, he jumped off of it, landing a double flip in the process. Sonic ran freely for awhile longer, only to be stopped in his tracks by lava coming down between two rocks at the top of the tunnel, creating a barrier like a waterfall, only much more dangerous. In the irony of it all, you could even call it... beautiful. Sonic figured out why it was a landmark, it looked so cool... The lava flowing all at the same time...

Suddenly, it just... stopped, leaving a huge puff of steam and ash, and an easily jumpable gap. Sonic looked behind himself to see Aquos with an impatient look on his face.

"No time to be sightseeing, Sonic. We have a shard to retrieve."

Sonic scratched his head awkwardly, realizing he had trailed off on an important mission. "Sorry," he said while chuckling, "My bad." He jumped over the gap and picked up speed once again, hoping to put that situation behind him. He made sure when he approached other ...lavafalls, he would focus and let Aquos put it out so they could continue through the tunnel.

After a few minutes, the tunnel started to curve upwards. Sonic looked up and saw a small light along with a Goal Ring. "How are we gonna get up there?"

"Hmm... We haven't seen any E-XT's for awhile yet... Try jumping, Sonic."

Sonic did what Aquos had said, and sure enough, E-XT robots teleported and came into view. _Now all I need to do is just Homing Attack all of them until I get to the top..._

"It's going to take more than just a Homing Attack to get up there," said Aquos, like he was almost reading Sonic's thoughts. "There's going to be some lava pouring out in some areas. You'll have to dodge them before I can put them out."

._..Crap..._ Despite Sonic's minor disappointment, as he was losing energy quite fast, proceeded to jump up and Homing Attack the E-XT's while dodging the lava spurts by clinging onto some rock jutting out from the sides of the tunnel. He gradually reached the top, the air becoming increasingly cooler compared to what it was below. He did go under 2 volcanoes, after all. Not to mention going down the first one and up through the second.

The sheer gold and rainbow colors of the Goal Ring was enough to be a small sanctuary, reassuring him what he had gone through was done for now and he could rest a bit before he want to the next act.

Tails's voice came over the Miles Electric. "How's the mission coming, Sonic?"

"Got through the first little bit. No major setbacks. How's Scarlet?"

"She's really happy to be here. She's been swimming in the pools of lava since you guys left. At first I was a little weirded out, but then I remembered what Aquos said about lava being as harmless to her as water is to us."

"Hi, guys!" Scarlet shouted from the lava pool. "Is everything OK?"

"So far, so good," Sonic answered. "No Eggman encounters yet. Just a bunch of crazed teleporting E-XT's."

"You might want to keep your eye out for him, though," Aquos added. "Right now, you feel really safe. This would be the perfect time for Eggman to kidnap you, because you've let your guard down. So stay vigilant and don't let your guard slip."

"All right," Scarlet said. "I hope you get the shard!"

"We probably will," Sonic responded. "See you once we do!"

"Bye!" Sonic turned off the Miles Electric and turned to Aquos. "Y'know, your sister's cute when she's happy."

"Yeah," Aquos replied putting a half-smile on his face, "Pity she can't always be like that. It's the first time in years."

"All the more to search for the next shard so we can at least preserve her powers. Im ready, how about you?"

"I was ready all this time."

"All right! Let's go!" Sonic ran towards the next act, Aquos following close behind.

Scorched Valley, Act 2

Right from the start, Sonic knew that he would be in for a tough time. How did he know that? Almost everything that was spread out before him was lava. Nothing but lava. Lava that could kill him in a heartbeat if he were to slip and fall into it. He took a few deep breaths, mentally prepared himself, and started towards a rocky platform that was wide enough for him to stand on without risking a fatal slip into the lava.

A pair of flying E-XT robots swooped down, trying to get Sonic from above. Luckily, Sonic was prepared for their attacks, spinball-jumping to demolish them from underneath.

Once he disposed of the E-XT's, he noticed a trail of floating, glowing Rings that he could Lightspeed Dash across. He did so, landing on another rocky platform above the lava. There was a 10-Ring capsule on that platform, which was another good sign.

As Sonic surfed along the lava pools, abandoning each piece of rock when he reached the end of every pool, Aquos took care of putting out lava occasionally spurting out from the rock walls, as well as sudden eruptions of lava from the ground. After a few minutes, a spring came into view in front of a wall which clearly meant the path was sprung up in the air, Aquos shooting water out from his feet like a personal water-powered jetpack following behind.

Sonic and Aquos took to the crimson, grey clouded skies, where ash lingered in the air from various volcanic eruptions. Even for such a dangerous area, Sonic found the sheer beauty of it, even if the element here was out of control. As he slowly glided down, occasionally trashing a load of E-XT robots, knowing Aquos would take care of the lava shoouting out at him, he took the time to notice the small streaks of lava flowing through every crack and crevice of the roock walls and the ground below him, how the sun reflected on it, making it look more threatening. This area certainly had it's ways of making it more of a harder place to go through, and it succeeded.

Sonic and Aquos finally had their feet on solid ground again, and took full speed. Feeling so free, no apparent threat in the few moments Sonic was running...

Until he felt the ground crumble below him. He quickly stepped back and out of the way before pieces of the ground fell into an abyss of nothing. There wasn't even a pool of lava..._ Oh, well._ Sonic thought. _I'll take the chance_. Sonic braced himself and sprung on his feet fron the fairly weak igneous rock he was standing on.

Suddenly, A searing pain shot through all his body for a split second, but even that was enough to knock him back a bit in midair. A gigantic spurt of lava came up just in mid-jump. The burning sensation, it kept growing, growing... more unbearable...

Aquos shot a beam of water around Sonic, the cobalt hedgehog now easily rid of the pain. Upon realizing that the hedgehog in question had no momentum now that his jump was stopped, Aquos grabbed him by the arm, and threw him upwards, Sonic then preforming a Lightspeed Dash, and landing on his feet on the other side, not long before Aquos did the same.

"Thanks for the save." said Sonic.

"Don't mention it." replied Aquos as the two started up again, this time prepared for the next few cave-ins. After runnig for a short time, Sonic noticed the Goal Ring, guarded by several E-XT robots. Not to mention they were in the air. "Aquos! I see the end! Look up!" Aquos did just that, and also noticed a spring on the ground leading to a trail of E-XT robots. They both followed it, proceeding to take out the robots in question one by one, and passing through to the end of the Act.


End file.
